Protest against UK election result turns violent

Police hold back protesters outside Downing Street during a campaign against austerity and the new government in central London, Britain, 09 May 2015. The demonstration follows the Conservative party's narrow victory in the general election on May 7. EPA - Hannah McKay

A PROTEST has erupted in central London against the re-election of Britain's Conservative prime minister David Cameron, with demonstrators throwing bottles, cans and smoke bombs at riot police.

Scuffles broke out when the anti-austerity demonstrators, blaring hooters, banging pots and chanting obscenities, confronted lines of police outside the gate leading to the prime minister's Downing Street residence. At one point a bicycle was hurled at police.

Police arrested 17 people, and four police officers and one member of police staff were injured during the protest, a Scotland Yard spokesman said.

A Reuters photographer estimated that a couple of hundred people took part in the protest, including a group of about 25 black-clad youths with sunglasses and face masks.

He said police briefly closed the central Whitehall Avenue to traffic but later reopened it and surrounded the last remaining group of several dozen protesters.